On August 15, 2016, the GAO (US Government Accountability Office) released a report that was critical of CBP’s handling of antidumping and countervailing duty orders, detailing the failure of CBP to collect roughly 2.3 billion in duties between 2001 and 2014. In the report, the GAO stated the CBP “missed opportunities to identify and mitigate nonpayment risk.” The trade community expects to see enforcement efforts increase in light of the fact that this report has a high profile and was delivered to the Senate Finance Committee.

Also released recently were CBP’s interim regulations, called “Investigation of Claims of Evasion of Antidumping and Countervailing Duties.” These regulations took effect on Monday, August 22 and outline the process for CBP’s investigation of claims of AD/CVD order evasion. The new regulations were mandated by section 421 of the Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act of 2015 which became law earlier in 2016. The current e-allegation system will continue to be in place, but the new system is designed to have advantages over that system; the procedures laid out include detailed steps for initiating, carrying out, and completing investigations. This comprehensive process for investigating can be used by other government agencies as well as private parties.